Tamarack Drive In – Laconia, New Hampshire

I really need to figure out a better way to ask if meat is fresh picked (i.e. comes to your establishment, live, in the shell, you cook it and serve), pre-packaged (someone else does all of the above, then packs it up, still fresh and ships it to you, or frozen (obviously, all of the above, but then frozen and shippped to you). When I ask if the meat in the lobster roll is “fresh picked”, what they seem to hear is “is your lobster meat spoiled or been sitting out too long”. Ugh, any suggestions would be appreciated. So, the meat here is frozen. Lake Winnipesaukee is quite inland, so I feel more forgiving that most of the lobster rolls in this region are made with frozen meat. Still not my preference, but I’m getting a better idea of how varied frozen meat can be. The lobster meat is decent, not particularly flavorful, but large chunks of all claw and knuckle meat and minimal spongies. A little more mayo than I like, wonder type standard bun is nicely, buttery grilled. We got a great deal of 2 lobster rolls for $22 on the day we went, so that’s nice.

Tamarack is a little road side stand, looks like a 50’s ice cream stand, which it also is (ice cream, I don’t know about the 50’s). The serve Gifford’s ice cream, always a plus for me. There are a few picnic tables on the side and an indoor dining area separate from the stand that I didn’t get a chance to check out. Cute little spot, but nothing particularly memorable here.

Post note: As I’m looking at their website, they sure make a big deal about how everything they use is fresh, they don’t use pre packaged foods. They grind their beef fresh every day. But, they curiously say that their lobster is 100% real north atlantic lobster. They neglect to mention that is both pre packaged and frozen. Hmm, seems very misleading.